Love Will Find A Way
by EriceGen
Summary: Shinji has just been released from unit 01. he takes a little walk with Rei, and they discover their feelings for each other.


Love Will Find A Way  
  
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Disclaimer: I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion. I do not own the song from 'The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride'. They belong to their respective owner and/or company.  
  
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Author's notes: This scene takes place in volume 8, stage 54 of the NGE manga series.  
  
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"May I... feel... your hand one more time?" Rei asked Shinji slowly, hoping not to make her request sound absurd. Like so many other emotions, hope was something she learnt only recently. Because of him...  
  
In a perfect world  
  
One we've never known  
  
We would never need to face the world alone  
  
"...... Of course!" Shinji answered her.  
  
Slowly, both of them reached out, grabbing each other's hands. As she did, she felt warmth spread from his hand, engulfing her, filling up the empty space she felt deep within her heart. She was. happy. For the first time in her life, she felt that she could face the world.  
  
Her hand in his, she felt life... she was living in a world so perfect that she never knew of. Life was perfect in there, no worries, no... control. She felt like she could just turn away from the world, without the need to face it.  
  
They can have the world  
  
We'll create our own  
  
I may not be brave or strong or smart  
  
But somewhere in my secret heart  
  
As she held onto Rei's tiny hand, Shinji felt himself smile. In this world of strangers, he felt comfortable with her, for she was like him, someone who does not belong here. For all he cared, his father could have this world.  
  
With Rei, Shinji was never alone. He felt... happy around her. She was portrayed as a stoic, indifferent girl... but he felt that she was just afraid of the others, like him. And it created a connection. She was the same in the eyes of others, but subtly, around him, she slowly created a world.  
  
Around Rei, he did not care if other thought that he was neither brave, strong nor smart. Around her, all that mattered was the feeling of warmth which could reach him anywhere, even from one corridor to another. It was just like... the way the heat from her palm was spreading within him.  
  
Somewhere in his secret heart, since the first time he saw her, he knew that... he loves Rei. Now he understood the meaning of love at first sight. The love rarely erupted immediately. Rather, it slowly made its presence known, letting his own actions speak for himself.  
  
I know  
  
Love will find a way  
  
Anywhere I go  
  
I'm home  
  
If you are there beside me  
  
Rei looked up at Shinji and saw him smile. It was one of content, and... Rei could hardly read the expression, but it felt like she was now. The feeling of warmth when around him... absurd as it may sound to Doctor Akagi, she felt that she loved Shinji.  
  
Trusting her love to show her what to do, she released herself from the normal constraints she usually put up against other people, causing her to smile in return to his expression. It wasn't obvious, but she felt herself sharing the warmth with Shinji, just because of the smile.  
  
Rei for the first time, felt that this garden, where she had never been to, felt like home to her. It was. like the time when she returned to her apartment to find him and Suzuhara in her room. It was the only time her cold apartment of shelter felt like home.  
  
Feeling... surprised, she realized that anywhere she went, as long as Ikari was nearby, it felt like the atmosphere around her now. She was home at last... when Ikari was there beside her.  
  
Like dark turning into day  
  
Somehow we'll come through  
  
Now that I've found you  
  
Love will find a way  
  
Shinji's eyes widened slightly when Rei smiled back at him. He was surprised, but it gave him a pleasant feeling that she was smiling of her own will, instead of at his request. Like the dark turning into day, he understood, anyone could change. But it might be slow or fast... and one should never expect somebody to change immediately.  
  
It had taken Rei a long time, but like the forces of nature, she changed. She had finally come through, shedding the cold shell his father had taught her to weave. Yet... it had been slow, like a butterfly. She had opened the cocoon, and it was yet to be totally broken.  
  
As he continued looking into Rei's eyes, he discovered that she appeared to share the warm feeling around them, like they were on the same wavelength. "Ayanami... Rei," Shinji murmured softly, hoping that what he found was not wrong.  
  
"Yes, Ikari Shinji?" she asked softly in reply.  
  
"Do you... love me?" he inquired, pleading with god that it was true.  
  
Rei bowed her head, causing Shinji to do the same. He took it as rejection... and it hurt. It hurt him more than any pain the angels had given him. "... yes, I do love you."  
  
Shinji almost started, as he looked sharply at the blue haired girl. "You do?" he asked, almost unbelievingly, only to be replied with a nod. His eyes flooded, but did not overflow. "I... I finally found you," he said softly, sure that from now on, love will find a way.  
  
I was so afraid  
  
Now I realize  
  
Love is never wrong  
  
And so it never dies  
  
Rei had been afraid, so very afraid when Shinji had suddenly asked her that question. It was the first time she felt fear, but it grabbed and held her with forces which seemed even stronger than an AT field.  
  
Then, she realized. She had read of people captivated by fear, yet gaining strength from love. She knew that... she might be disappointed, or even heartbroken. But she had to let him know, or she might be killing herself inside.  
  
Now that she had told him, she found out that love was never wrong. One who loved another would be able to read it in the partner... and it could never be wrong. For god had made them that way.  
  
As Rei understood love, she realized that Shinji being 'invincible', as Soryu called him, might not be so wrong after all. Shinji was 'lost' in the LCL in his Eva, but he returned. He was often protected by his mother's love. Could he have returned because of her love for him?  
  
There's a perfect world  
  
Shining in your eyes  
  
And if only they could feel it too  
  
The happiness I feel with you  
  
Shinji pulled Rei close to him, enclosing her in a tight hug. He realized that while trapped in the LCL, he might have been following Rei's call, following the love she had for him. It could've been because of her that he managed to escape the LCL world.  
  
Just now, having heard her confession, he noticed. there was a perfect world shining in her eyes, a reflection of their preferred kind of world, a reflection of each other, an image waiting to be created by them.  
  
"If only they could feel it too," Shinji whispered into Rei's ear, both still holding each other close, treasuring the love for each other, something which was forbidden without absolute privacy. *If only they could understand the happiness we feel with each other...* he thought sadly.  
  
They'd know  
  
Love will find a way  
  
Anywhere we go  
  
We're home  
  
If we are there together  
  
*If only they could understand the happiness we feel with each other, they'd know that we will find a way,* Rei thought, cherishing the embrace. Rei knew that now that they were together, their love would find a way... for them to create their own world, their perfect world.  
  
But with the angels attacking so often, they would have to stay in this world of hurt to protect the people. Strangers to them, but human, all the same. After all, they were not the only one who wished to create their world of love... Suzuhara and the class representative were another pair.  
  
For now, anywhere they went, any pain they took, they would be able to call it home. Because of that one word, which explained how they felt, yet insufficient enough to explain. They would be able to call anywhere home, as long as they were there together.  
  
Like dark turning into day  
  
Somehow we'll come through  
  
Now that I've found you  
  
Love will find a way  
  
Around them, the sun was starting to set, the lights switching on, cutting through the darkness like day. Shinji looked at the brightness, smiling blissfully. Since he had known about the world around him, after his father abandoned him, he had never felt so happy. Loving Rei was... the besting which happened to him.  
  
Turning slightly, he noted the pyramid shaped building of NERV. He would play the obedient third child for now, to be used by his father. But as sure as the darkness would turn into day, they would come through the control his father had on them.  
  
Shinji ran his hand up and down Rei's back lovingly. Rei reacted by burrowing her head into the hollow of his shoulders and sighing peacefully. Now that they've found each other, their love would help them find the way, the way leading out of the organization called NERV.  
  
I know love will find a way  
  
"Rei, it's getting dark," he told her softly.  
  
"I know..." she replied shifting to look up at him. "We had better leave," she went on. "Or you will have the doctors looking all over the place for you."  
  
"Yeah... but I don't wish to leave," he muttered sadly.  
  
"We can still see each other, Shinji. But it is now time to part..." Rei murmured. Reluctantly, they released each other, and move apart. "Good night, Shinji," she told her love, before turning to leave the compound.  
  
"Wait, Rei," Shinji called, causing her to turn back. Slowly, he drew close to her face, and kissed her softly on the lips. "I love you. Don't forget that."  
  
"I love you too, Shinji Ikari. Do not forget it either," she gave him a smile, before walking out of the little garden.  
  
*Ai Shiteru, Rei Ayanami,* he thought, before returning to his room in the NERV hospital.  
  
In the black sky above them, the moon glowed a pale white. If one were to notice it, they would've seen the beam of the moon converging on one spot, where the two lovers stood, at the center of the garden.  
  
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Author's Notes (Again): I've changed the autoformating. To clear up some questions:  
  
dennisud: For me to write a Prologue and Sequel is a good idea, I won't be able to do it till the around the end of year 2004. Thanks for the support.  
  
Anubuss: Like you, I have yet to find the 8th volume of the series in English. However, I roughly translated the Chinese version of the section I used.  
  
Thanks to all of those who might review or flame, and I hope to put up better/more fics when the important year for me is over. 


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